Skip to main content
AAO-HNSF 2025 Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Video

Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

(A413) Evaluating Quality and Reliability of YouTube Videos for Patient Education in Facial Paralysis

Monday, October 13, 2025
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT
Location: OTO EXPO, Posters

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Hanel W. Eberly, MD

    Resident
    Yale New Haven Hospital
    Fairfield, Connecticut, United States

    • Co-Author(s)

  • Heather Anne Yeakel, MD

    Resident
    St Luke's Hospital - Anderson Campus Program
    Easton, Pennsylvania, United States

  • Andrew V. Meci, MPH

    Medical Student
    Penn State College of Medicine
    Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States

    • Senior Author(s)

  • Jessyka G. Lighthall, MD

    Chief, Division of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
    Professor, Penn State College of Medicine, Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery
    Hershey, PA, United States

Disclosure(s):
Hanel W. Eberly, MD: No relevant relationships to disclose.
Heather Anne Yeakel, MD: No relevant relationships to disclose.
Andrew V. Meci, MPH: No relevant relationships to disclose.
Jessyka G. Lighthall, MD: No relevant relationships to disclose.


Introduction: YouTube is one of the most widely used video-sharing platforms, and is increasingly utilized for disseminating health-related information. However, there is little data on objective assessments of the quality of educational information on YouTube regarding facial paralysis surgery.

Methods: YouTube was searched using 20 phrases including general terms such as “facial paralysis surgery”, “facial reanimation surgery”, and specific names of procedures. The first 50 videos from each search were screened for inclusion. Videos were further screened and classified as material for patients vs. trainees in medical education. Duplicates were excluded. Videos were analyzed using Modified DISCERN, Global Quality Score (GQS), and JAMA Benchmark metrics of video quality, educational value, and transparency, respectively. Analysis of video metadata and scores was performed with Spearman correlation and Kruskal Wallis tests.

Results: Sixty-five videos with 5,029,969 combined views were analyzed. Most videos were webinars/informational videos for patients (27.69%) with the next most common being before/after videos (24.6%). Most videos were produced by healthcare organizations (55.4%). The mean Modified DISCERN, GQS, and JAMA Benchmark scores were 13/25, 2.6/5, and 2.5/4 respectively. Higher modified DISCERN scores were substantially associated with patient-created videos (p=0.025). No significant differences in GQS or JAMA Benchmark scores were found by video creator or type.

Conclusions: Standard YouTube searches may not produce optimal results for patients seeking educational material on the topic of facial paralysis. Many videos are informal webinars or informational videos and patient perspectives with limited educational potential and not insignificant bias. Low transparency and reliability scores contribute to this. Patients should be carefully directed to trusted and objective sources for education.